Dayramir Gonzalez

Hailing from Havana, Cuba, pianist and composer Dayramir Gonzalez ’13 is known as an advocate for traditional Cuban music, including the danzón. He has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Havana Jazz Festival, among others. His album Grand Concourse was released in 2016 and he is the cofounder of the Art School of Contemporary Performance and Creativity. The school provides comprehensive music education to New York City elementary school students.

Thanks to his father, the Afro-Cuban jazz trumpeter Fabian Gonzalez, music has always been a driving force in Gonzalez’s life. He attended musical arts schools while growing up and began playing jazz piano professionally at age 16. Oscar Valdes, a singer and percussionist with Irakere, asked him to be a part of the group Diakara while Gonzalez was still in high school, and Gonzalez then played with the group as pianist and composer for three years. Next he played with drummer Giraldo Piloto in the group Klimax. He attended the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana for four years and then moved to Boston and Berklee on a full scholarship.

While at Berklee, he was signed by Jazz Revelation Records, release an album on the Berklee label, and he received the Wayne Shorter Award. He has also won first place at Cuba’s JoJazz Festival and three Cubadisco Awards for his debut album with his group, Habana enTRANCé.